[GreenKeys] Model 35, blinded mode

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Nagle" <nagle at animats.com>
To: <greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, July 23, 2011 11:05 AM
Subject: Re: [GreenKeys] Model 35, blinded mode


>> Subject: [GreenKeys] Model 35
>> To: "Greenkeys Greenkeys"<greenkeys at mailman.qth.net>
>> Message-ID:<CD65EB43B3334FE6AC95F9ECC0518BE2 at d2400>
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>> reply-type=original
>>
>> Still working to understand the Model 35 I 
>> aquired.....why would the machine
>> have a "KB Unblind" function.
>>
>> In other words....why would a KB be "blinded" in the 
>> first place?  Seems to
>> me you just don't type if you don't want the KB 
>> functional.
>
>    Typing "blind" means you don't get to see what you've 
> typed.
> Operating in that mode was quite common in the telegram 
> era.
>
>    Watch "Telegram for America",
> ("http://www.archive.org/details/Telegram1956"),
> which shows Western Union operations from the 1950s.  Note
> that all the Western Union operators type blind.  Most are
> operating non-printing keyboard perforators.
>
>    That movie also shows Plan 55-A switching centers
> (fully automatic, paper tape buffering), and what I
> think is a Plan 21-A system (pushbutton routing,
> paper tape buffering).
>
> John Nagle

     I stumbled on this movie while searching Archive Org 
for anything having to do with telegraph or telephone. There 
is a lot there. The movie impressed me with the enormous 
size of WU in its hayday. Maybe that's what it was supposed 
to do. All supplanted by other technology.
     Its interesting that the first typewriters were "blind" 
typers. The type bars struck the paper from underneath so 
that it was necessary to roll the paper up in order to see 
what was typed.
     Only slightly OT see the movie _Basic Typing_ two 
parts, a WW-2 Navy training film featuring Lenore Fenton, a 
champion typist. An expert typist friend estimates she is 
doing about 90 WPM in places.
     Also se _Voice of Victory_ a promotional film from 
Hallicrafters showing mostly the construction of the famous 
BC-610.
     You have to imagine the sound of a Howell and Bellow 
projector going in the background.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com